Precious coral

※Off display.

Found from shallow depths to a few hundred meters near south Shikoku, west Kyushu and the Ogasawara Islands. In the Ryukyu Islands, they are collected at depths around 250 meters from the waters around Miyako Island and off the northern coast of Okinawa Island. The colony is tree-like and grows by spreading out in a single plane fan-like form. The polyps are distributed on one side of the fan and feed on zooplankton that drifts past. The coenenchyme is thin and the red color of the skeleton can be seen. It is highly valued and used for ornaments and accessories, however, due to over harvesting large colonies are now rarely seen.